Goodbye
by JeminiaMoon
Summary: What if David and Zanna disappeared from Earth at the zenith of the fire star? And what happened while they were gone? **Abandoned, but I can't bring myself to delete it**
1. Prologue: Goodbye

The young man and woman are locked in an embrace. Her brown eyes meet his blue; they glint in the Arctic moonlight, recalling traces of dragon and polar bear and something far beyond their intelligence. Ne gently caresses her long black hair, a glistening tear dropping onto their clasped hands.

"Will you be with me?" Zanna whispers, eyes shining. She is afraid for the answer.

David shifts his gaze somewhere far in the distance, where the fire star burns bright. As the star disappears into inky, impenetrable black, Zanna catches the word a moment before he, too, is gone.

_"Sometimes."_


	2. Si:var:ia

**Note: If anything doesn't match up to the story, assume that I changed it for story purposes. Even if I wasn't conscious of it.**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, it's not mine.**

_Zanna did not know where she was._

She was surrounded by a silvery mist that sparkled and twisted, concealing anything that may be there. The mist obscured everything around her, including the ground…she was floating! No one else was visible…

…wait! An indistinct form was shaping in the corner of her eye. The girl thought of seeing what was there, and suddenly it was at the center of her vision. But no longer was it just a shadow—she could see glimpses of a violet eye…a dark-green, scale covered being…_a dragon._

Before her was the last dragon, Gawain, in all of his splendor and beauty. He was breath-taking.

The magnificent beast lifted his gaze to her. _Yes…_she heard, in dragontongue. _I am Gawain. Welcome to Si:var:ia, Suzanna Martindale._

_How do you know who I am? _Zanna thought, in Gawain's language.

The dragon heard this and responded, _Nothing of your mind is shielded from me, Suzanna Martindale. Your thoughts are reality. Reality is but your thoughts._

Zanna regained some of her old vigor and thought, _Would you mind telling me where I am?_

_I have already told you, Suzanna. You are in Si:var:ia, the world of shadows that occupies the space between Co:pern:ica, the imagineered world, and your world. You are waiting…there is something that wishes to see you, and you were instructed not to pass until you did so…_

Suddenly, a new being entered, and Zanna felt the presence of something that she would never understand. _Here they are now… _Gawain thought.

_We are Fain, _the being (beings?) intoned. _Shall we commingle?_

Zanna understood this word; it reminded her of David and his so-called…_connections. _So the girl let her mind's defenses lapse. The Fain were let into her mind, and her world was changed. Her senses were sharpened; she was aware of so much more surrounding her. Zanna understood that now she was more than human. _Like David…_

_We are now a part of you, _Zanna heard in her mind. _You are now a hybrid of human and Fain. You will guide us to what we need, Suzanna Martindale…_

_And what is that?_

_All in good time, Suzanna Martindale, all in good time._

Zanna looked one last time at the majestic Gawain. _Good-bye, _she heard him say, and then, not for the first time, her world shifted and blurred. She wondered where she was going now.

_All in good time, Suzanna Martindale…_


	3. Into Ki:mera

**Okay, for this story, just assume that ****The Fire Eternal**** never happened, and right after ****Fire Star**** came ****Dark Fire****. But just for this story! I don't think I could live without ****The Fire Eternal****. But if it was never written, I wouldn't know what I was missing anyway…**_**ahem…**_**okay, back to some—**_**business.**_

**Disclaimer: Zanna, David, Fain, Ki:mera…Chris d'Lacey's. Not mine, not mine, not mine…siiiiiiigh…**

In a far different world than Zanna, David Rain was meeting the beings of his origin.

Being a Fain construct, he knew immediately that he was now in the Fain world, Ki:mera. All around him were spirals and swirls of color and light and darkness, Fain beings, and…polar bears? It appeared that the bears of the Arctic had crossed over into this world.

David looked down at his body…it was unchanged; he still looked to be human. But the Fain around him knew differently, they could see his Fain status. Their aumas buzzed as they commingled with him, he heard languages from dragontongue to traditional English and just about everything else. Below the drone of Fain voices was the distinct rumble of polar bears' rougher communication, but they, too, were able to commingle. That was strange…it seemed that the Ki:meran polar bears had reached a yet unseen level of intelligence in bears.

Swiveling his brown-haired head, David took in more of his surroundings. It now seemed that one of the cream-colored bears was approaching him, taking soft, deliberate steps of his large paws. David blinked and looked again; he recognized that profile. Rapidly coming closer was Avrel, the Teller of Ways.

_Avrel, _David commingled. _It is good to see you here._

_Yes, _the Teller thought back. _It is refreshing to be in a world yet untainted by humans…yet that other world is just where I want to be now. I miss the snowy tundras of home._

_Teller, could you inform me of the location of the dragon Gawain? _David asked, looking into the bear's deep brown eyes.

Avrel tilted his head skyward, breathing in the universe. He closed the great brown eyes, then blinked them open, fixating on David. _Gawain is in Si:var:ia, the shadow world that lies between Earth and Co:per:nica. I assume you know what Co:per:nica is?_

_Yes, I do._ _Do you_ _know what business he attends there? _David asked his second question, but hardly his last.

_I believe he is there to guide a young Fain and a young sibyl together, _the bear rumbled.

David relaxed palpably; at least he knew that Zanna was safe. But on the other hand…would they ever be together again? Probably not, David guessed. They were three dimensions apart and nowhere near close to returning to the same one.

_So, what brings you here, Nanukapik? _Avrel questioned, using the title that David had adopted during his sojourn as a bear.

_It is yet unknown._ David rotated slowly, taking in the Fain surrounding him. They seemed to buzz with an anticipatory excitement, as if waiting for a big event. _What are the Fain preparing for?_

_I do not know, they will not give this information to us bears, _the Teller answered. _But all the bears agree that they are waiting in fear._

The Fain in David registered fear and immediately sent back a related response: _Ix. _With the word came memories of mutated, dark gargoyles, pain and suffering and blackness. David shuddered, realizing at last what the Ix were: the evil side of the Fain, equally powerful but given malicious tendencies.

_Nanukapik, I believe you have a visitor. _Avrel broke into David's thoughts, sending him spinning to face the bear. Behind him floated a majestic evergreen dragon. Gawain.

_G'lant, _rumbled the giant scaly beast, referring to yet another of David's names, this one dragon. _I have attended to business, and now you must do so, too._

_What would you like me to do?_ David asked, staring into those intent violet eyes. The deep-black pupils of the dragon's eyes looked directly into David's as he replied,

_You must prepare this world for the chaos that will, undoubtedly, reach it._


End file.
